From the University of Georgia Performing Arts Center:
“A love letter to theatre itself. For admirers of Hamlet this is a palpable hit!”—Edinburgh Guide
Denmark. 2:00 a.m. A hotel room. Three weary travelers, an unexpected will, and a production of Hamlet to rehearse before morning.
Humor and tragedy converge in Hotel Elsinore, a new play about the challenges of relationships, forgiveness, and Shakespeare. This UGA Presents event runs one night only — Thursday, Oct. 10 at 7:30 — at the Morton Theatre.
A real-life family plays the bereaved loved ones of the once-great actor Henry Elder, who was scheduled to perform his career-defining solo Hamlet at the Elsinore Shakespeare Festival. As they discover, Henry is determined to not let anything as inconvenient as death prevent him from being there. With Shakespeare’s Hamlet as the spindle the family’s story revolves around, this award-winning play is by turns both absurd and poignant.
British/Canadian playwright Susanna Hamnett appears with her two adult artist children, Joshua MacGregor and Lily MacGregor, after a successful 2022 run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
"I love thinking of new and unexpected ways to explore Shakespeare’s plays," Hamnett says. "And the idea for Hotel Elsinore came from thinking about Hamlet. This new play was made with my son Joshua and daughter, Lily, and a lot of the work was done during the Covid lockdowns when we were all living together. We had been thinking about making something together for a long time and our conversations would keep coming back to the idea of a story that somehow revolved around the themes ofHamlet."
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Susanna Hamnett is a multi-award-winning British/Canadian artist, currently based in the UK.
Born in London, Susanna studied Russian and French at Cambridge University before winning scholarships to study acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She worked professionally in England and Europe before moving to Toronto to study theatrical clowning with master clowns John Turner and Mike Kennard.
There she created Nearly Lear — her first full-length solo performance — with a Canadian creative team and with initial research in association with the internationally-acclaimed English company, Kneehigh Theatre. Nearly Lear has since toured internationally to a multitude of different venues, including the New Victory Theater on Broadway, the Sydney Opera House and the Kennedy Center, as well as a joyful array of smaller venues, schools, village halls and festivals across Canada, the U.S., and the UK. More recently it has won awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe — where it was seen by UGA Performing Arts Center Director Jeffrey Martin — and the Riverside Studios in London.
Susanna is currently working on another solo show. She continues to teach and can sometimes be seen on television and film (most recently in Canadian-Maltese film-maker Valerie Buhagiar's It's Hard to Be Human). She is also a qualified yoga teacher.
Lily MacGregor is an actor, dancer, singer and visual artist. Born in Toronto and educated there until she was 16, Lily began her training as a dancer at the prestigious CCDT (Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre), starting at the age of 4 and working her way up through the ranks into the Company.
She completed her last year of high school while travelling in Europe and England, graduating as an Ontario Scholar. She currently lives in Leipzig, Germany, working as a dancer/dance teacher after having recently graduated from the Leipzig Tanz-Zentrale with a professional diploma in dance, choreography and pedagogy.
In 2023 Lily travelled with her mother to Kerala, India to train as an accredited yoga teacher, acquiring skills that Lily is integrating into her dance and teaching practices. An accomplished singer and songwriter, Lily recently recorded with Cornwall-based musician Andy Wilson on his forthcoming album.
Joshua MacGregor is an actor, dancer, and writer. Born in Toronto, Joshua began his training as a dancer at the prestigious Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, starting at age 4 and working his way up through the ranks into the Company.
Realizing that his passion leaned more towards acting, Joshua then spent two summers at the Stratford Festival Shakespeare Summer School in Stratford, Ontario, on scholarship, and in his last year of high school, he adapted, directed and starred in a production of Henry V, which earned him a number of scholastic awards for leadership and community contribution. He graduated high school as an Ontario Scholar.
At 18 he auditioned for drama school and won a place at Rose Bruford College in London, graduating with a BA (Hons) in Acting three years later. While there he formed a theatre company and wrote, produced, and starred in a new play, The Teeth of Haros, which went to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and received glowing reviews.
BUYING TICKETS IS EASY
Securing tickets for UGA Presents performances and other events couldn’t be easier. There are three ways to choose from:
Purchase tickets online 24/7 at pac.uga.edu.
Call the Performing Arts Center Box Office at (706) 542-4400, Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Visit the UGA Performing Arts Center Box Office, Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at 230 River Road (5 minute parking is available in the drop off circle at the Performing Arts Center for purchasing or picking up tickets.)
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